Central York lacrosse won a back-and-forth game with York Catholic, scoring the game-winner with less than 4 minutes to play Tuesday, April 10, 2018.

Boys' lacrosse

Central York 10, York Catholic 9: Central York’s Connor Hoch snapped a tie when he scored the eventual game-winner with 3:01 to play to lift the Panthers to a 10-9 victory against York Catholic.

York Catholic managed to erase a two-goal lead in the fourth quarter, tying the match with 7:45 to play, and after Ryan Kilgour put Central back on top the Irish tied it again with 6:23 to play.

“It’s tough to guard Alex (Kilgour), when Alex and Connor are on the field together,” Central York head coach Ryan Muller said.

“We kind of looked for the mismatch and attacked, and he ran a play.”

The game was a rematch of last season’s league tournament title game.

“I think the kids love the game when they know the other team, and our kids know (Central) better than maybe any other team,” York Catholic coach Shane Harper said. “They do things together all the time.”

York Catholic jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first period, but Central York managed to pull within one goal with 1:30 left in the frame. Then Blaze Hake came up with a big save in the final 30 seconds of the period, knocking away a shot to keep the game a one-goal deficit.

“Me having gone here and playing for Shane, it was a little interesting all week looking forward to it,” Muller said about working his first game as head coach against his alma mater. “I think the kids were a little nervous and a little excited.

“Usually in the middle of the game, the second and third quarter are when we are best, we’ve been coming out very flat. Three out of four games, I think, we’ve come out and been losing at some point. So we really need to work on that. Usually the second and third quarter it’s tough to play with us.”

Central then went on a 3-0 run to open the second quarter, killing off a two-minute penalty at one point, to take control of the game.

“I think they hit us in the mouth, and I don’t think we came out as strong as we should have,” Central junior Robert Stockbower said. “But it’s definitely something we needed. We need to be prepared to play teams like this. … I’m kind of glad this happened early in the season so it could wake us up.”

York Catholic came on strong in the fourth quarter, scoring three of the first four goals of the period. The highlight had to be Joey Fiorenza firing in a behind-the-back goal at 8:22 to pull the Irish within one. And York Catholic had its chances late, but in the final three minutes Central managed to earn some stops and force turnovers – including two during a 20-second span – to seal the win.